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The Disappearing 9 Blocks

Months and months and months ago when I last got to attend a Bee Blessed gathering, I took home with me six odd Disappearing Nine Blocks that hadn't fit in with the other quilts made from the masses of D9Bs we'd collected in the preceding months. These leftover but still lovely D9Bs featured pale yellow, light blue, and aqua fabrics, so I grabbed whatever there was in the Bee Blessed stash, supplementing with a few bits and pieces from my own stash, to make enough matching blocks to finish a quilt top. Following Judith's fantastic tutorial, I made ten more D9Bs, all of which promptly got stacked and stored until they almost disappeared for real! I dug them out a couple of weeks ago, after being reminded that our next Bee Blessed gathering was set for 15 September, more than a little bit embarrassed that I hadn't made more progress!

Apologies for the odd angle - I had to lie the blocks on the floor.

I had initially meant to add another row of four D9Bs, but, I'd run out of the plain white fabric required for the blocks and, truth be told, I wasn't loving how the quilt top was looking. The colours were a little bit too muted and plain for my liking, and I thought a thick border in a bright aqua would liven things up a bit and tie the blocks together (if also making the quilt itself a slightly odd size!).

I think the border works really well, and I'm a little bit surprised at how much I like the finished quilt top, considering how unimpressed with the colours I'd been before adding the border. It's probably never going to be my favourite quilt ever, but I'm pretty happy with the overall effect. And, at least now I can show up on the 15th, completed quilt top in hand, ready for backing, quilting, and binding. Slowly, but surely, right?!

Brownie points to you. I think the aqua border was a great choice - funny how something we start out not liking can change as the work progresses, and we don't always have to love something ourselves for it to be a real blessing to other folks! Thank you so much on behalf of Bee Blessed for working this one through!

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